10 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 271. 



appeared in various printed collections, will come 

 in a fifth volume of my edition. 



My object in addressing you is, to query 

 whether any of your readers can and will help to 

 increase my store, either by sale, loan, or tran- 

 script, or by promotive indications ? To such, a 

 debt of gratitude will be due from the public, and 



Henry G. Bohn. 



JENNENS OR JENNINGS OF ACTON PLACE. 



In the Gent. Mag. for July, 1 798, will be found 

 -tin account of a very remarkable man, Wm. Jen- 

 nens or Jennings of Acton Place, in the county of 

 ' Sufiblk, and of Grosvenor Square, London, who 

 died on the 19th of June preceding, at the age of 

 •ninety-seven. He is there stated to have been 

 the richest subject of the crown, and having died 

 intestate and without issue, that his almost in- 

 calculable wealth would merge into three indi- 

 viduals previously possessing immense fortunes. 

 An opinion afterwards very generally prevailed 

 that his heirs could not be traced, and that the 

 crown had interfered to protect the property for 

 whomsoever should establish the claim ; and it is 

 believed that litigation took place on the subject 

 even to a comparatively recent period. It was 

 rumoured that a claimant had taken possession 

 of Acton Place, and the notice of it in Shoberl's 

 Beauties of England and Wales, published in 1813, 

 vol. xiv., tit. Suffolk, would seem to sustain that 

 statement : 



" On his decease the fine tapestry was torn from the 

 walls, and sold with the furniture and other movables. 

 This noble mansion having since that time been inhabited 

 only by an old man and woman, now presents a deplorable 

 spectacle of dilapidation, and the approach cannot be 

 traced but by the colour and height of the grass which 

 has grown over the gravel. The interior still exhibits 

 some vestiges of its former splendour. The garden has 

 fared even worse than the building, for it has been 

 ploughed up, and has been now cultivated as a field." — 

 P. 159. 



Some mystery unquestionably hangs over this 

 singular individual, and the vast property which 

 he left behind him undisposed of, and which it is 

 believed has never yet been the subject of final 

 adjudication or distribution. In "N. & Q.," Vol. 

 iv., p. 424., date Nov. 29, 1851, an inquiry appears, 

 whether the late Mr. Jenings of Acton Hall, 

 Suffolk, was descended from a Yorkshire branch 

 of the family, and where information as to pedigree 

 could be obtained. In two subsequent Volumes, 

 namely, Vol. vi., under October, 1852, and Vol. vii. 

 for 1853, Queries also occur respecting the Jen- 

 nings family ; but I have not been able to trace any 

 very accurate details respecting the rich JMr. Je- 

 nings. 



As the subject is to some extent one of historical 

 interest, perhaps some of your numerous corre- 



spondents may be able to afford some information 

 as to his pedigree and connexions, and also ns to 

 the disposition of his money and estates, in whom 

 they vested, and whether any portion yet remains 

 for distribution. W. B. 



[It appears that William Jennens Avas a descendant of 

 the family of Jennens of Gopsal Hall, co. Leicester, whose 

 pedigree, and some account of the family, is given iu 

 Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iv. p. 859. In Acton Church, 

 Sufiblk, is a monument with the following inscription : 

 " To the memory of Robert Jennens of Acton Place, in 

 the county of Sufiblk, Esq., fourth son of Humphrey 

 Jennens, of Warwickshire, Esq., who died the 25th of 

 February, 1725-6, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, 

 leaving one only son, William Jennens, by Anne his wife, 

 only daughter and heir of Carew Guidott, of Hampshire, 

 Esq. He purchased the estate, and began the house. 

 This monument was erected by his wife, who also built 

 this chapel. She died the 24th of December, 1761, 

 aged eighty-five, and is deposited in the family vault, 

 under the chancel adjoining to this chapel, with the re- 

 mains of her said husband. The above-named William 

 Jennens died the 19th of June, 1798, in the ninety-eighth 

 year of his age : is buried in the same vault with his 

 father and mother, and his memory thus perpetuated by 

 his particular direction." From a statement in the Gent. 

 Mag. for March, 1803, p. 287., it appears that a consider- 

 able part of the personal propertj' of Mary, dowager Vis- 

 countess Andover, came to her as one of the heirs-at-law 

 of William Jennens, whose death is noticed in the same 

 work, vol. Ixviii. pp. 627. 755. See also the Gent. Mag. 

 for July 1852, p. 85., and August 1852, p^ll4., for an 

 account of a falsely rumoured settlement of this long 

 litigated case. The noble structure of Acton Hall, con- 

 taining fifty-four apartments, was demolished in 1825 by 

 order of Earl Howe, heir-at-law of the late parsimonious 

 proprietor: see the advertisements for its sale in the 

 Ipswich Journal, March 5, 1825, and April 30, 1825.] 



" ULTIMO," " INSTANT," AND " PROXIMO." 



I should be glad to receive a critical notice of 

 the common phrases ultimo, instant, aniS. proximo. 

 From what source have these terms flowed into 

 our language, and why is it that they refer to 

 months only and not to days ? The received 

 meaning seems to be as follows. If I, writing on 

 the 20th of November, speak of the 10th ultimo, 

 it means decimo die, ultimo mense, or the 10th of 

 October. If I speak of the 10th instant, it means 

 decimo die, instanti mense, or the 10th of Novem- 

 ber. If of the 10th proximo, it means by a similar 

 construction the 10th December. Now as I can- 

 not find in books of reference, such as dictionaries, 

 any explanation except that subjoined of these 

 phrases, it is very easy to fall into error concern- 

 ing them, especially as Dr. Johnson, our great 

 authority in questions of philology, attributes in 

 his dictionary a substantive meaning to the word 

 instant, used in this sense, which he says is used 

 " in low and commercial language for a day of the 

 present or current month." This definition seems 

 to be incorrect and imperfect when we analyse the 



